Monet to Mallarmé

The Salon SeriesSaturdays, September 8, & October 20; 4 p.m.Hear American poets--full list here--reading their favorite French Symbolist poets including Stephane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine and discussing the poet's influence on their own work in this series part of Monet's Garden. Co-presented by the Poetry Society of America. These programs are made possible by a gift from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Inc.

About the Poetry Walk

The spirit of the Impressionist movement permeated all forms of culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with many of his peers in the art world, Claude Monet was part of an active circle of creative people in Paris that included artists, musicians, and poets.

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-98), a leading figure of the French Symbolist movement in poetry, hosted Tuesday evening salons at his home in Paris. Poets including Paul Verlaine (1844-96), writers Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, and Monet and his artist friend Eduoard Manet were regular attendees. The group called themselves "Les Mardistes," which was derived from the French word for Tuesday.

Les Mardistes were stimulated by one another’s work. Eduoard Manet illustrated Mallarmé’s poetry, and the composer Claude Debussy was inspired by Mallarmé’s poems.

Throughout the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden and Leon Levy Visitor Center, poems by Mallarmé, Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), and Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) have been placed within the Garden landscape. Gain insight into the artistry of Monet’s contemporaries in the literary realm, and revel in the unconventional, sometimes playful use of metaphors and symbolism in some of these poets’ most beloved writings.